To Hell and Back

This sharecropper's son was too small for the Marines and Navy. So, he took the Army. He soon showed leadership capacity as he fought the hostile Germans in Sicily and Italy. He won a battlefield commission (his education was poor before the joined the Army but the Army needed enthusiastic patriots. He took chances, was wounded in the hip, plus other places, and won every medal the Army had on hand, including the Medal of Honor. A born leader, he made many friends that served with him. I only hope that our Army can attract such people in our volunteer Army. He was a great Hollywood actor. Tragically he was killed in a plane cdrash!

I was expecting the book cover to be included that was shown in the pictures advertised. I got the book but no book cover.

Amidst the hype and media sensations of superhero movies (of which I am a fan), Audie Murphy's memoir reads like a casual conversation with friends around a table. Murphy was a legitimate hero during WWII and this book inspired the movie "To Hell And Back", starring Murphy as himself. He manages to convey all the horror and grittiness of the battlefield with the utmost humility. He is not a hero in his own eyes, just a soldier doing his job. That job gave him the Congressional Medal of Honor and the title of the Most Decorated Soldier In The United States. Audie Murphy's memoir is not a cautionary tale about war, it's an exposition of what serving on a battlefield is actually like and the determination, camaraderie and affection the soldiers in his unit had for each other. Murphy is a real life Captain America. He was too short, too slight to join the marines, air force or navy. The army took him in, trained him and got the better end of that deal.

It was interesting to read this account of Audie Murphy's travails in World War II (Murphy was one of the most highly decorated soldiers of that war) having read Ambrose's eulogy Band of Brothers . Murphy received (every major medal, some more than once, that the army has to offer). He joined the army at age 17 to support six siblings after his mother died (his father had left the family earlier), and he doesn't talk about how the war haunted the rest of his life. He portrays a brutal, harsh struggle to survive, where the only thing that matters is keeping oneself and one's friends alive. There are moments of great poignancy, others of humor. Once, hungry, dirty and wet, mired in their foxholes, they notice they are under a tree with ripe cherries. Not daring to stick a head up, let alone climb out of the foxhole, Murphy's buddy gets the idea of shooting down the branches with his machine gun, and soon they are delighted to have cherry branches falling on them, making the day just a little brighter. Not once does Murphy mention his numerous awards, Clearly, Murphy believed that luck played as much a part in his survival as anything he did. He was however, the kind of person who tried to control his destiny, doing what was necessary and taking the initiative in order to get through the day. A little piece of Murphy died every time a friend was killed, and soon almost all of his friends were gone. He was delighted if they received a wound that would return them to the rear, away from battle. He sympathized and worried for the lieutenant who had been badly injured and returned voluntarily to the front only to lose his nerve under the intense shelling. It must have been horribly traumatic to develop such close bonds and to have them ripped apart. At the risk of sounding a little chauvinistic, I quote from the last lines of his book: " When I was a child, I was told that men were branded by war. Has the brand been put on me? Have the years of blood and ruin stripped me of all decency? Of all belief? Not of all belief. I believe in the force of a hand grenade, the power of artillery, the accuracy of a Garand. I believe in hitting before you get hit, and that dead men do not look noble. "But I also believe in men like Brandon and Novak and Swope and Kerrigan; and all the men who stood up against the enemy, taking their beatings without whimper and their triumphs without boasting. The men who went and would go again to hell and back to preserve what our country thinks right and decent. "My country. America! That is it. We have been so intent on death that we have forgotten life. And now suddenly life faces us. I swear to myself that I will measure up to it. I may be branded by war, but I will not be defeated by it. "Gradually it becomes clear. I will go back. I will find the kind of girl of whom I once dreamed. I will learn to look at life through uncynical eyes, to have faith, to know love. I will learn to work

The cover of this new edition of "To Hell And Back" shows a very young soldier with an incredible display of decorations, behind the cover are the exploits of how the most decorated combat soldier of WWII earned those medals, although you would never know that from the text of this book. Nowhere in this book does Audie Murphy mention that he was ever decorated, the deeds speak for themselves. Because of several bios of Audie Murphy it is known that while Audie wrote, or told to a writer, the combat stories in this book are is own, Audie's ghost writer connected his first hand accounts with pages of banter from Audie's fictionalized platoon buddies. When Audie Murphy tells his story it rings true. Only a combat veteran would write that when he stood alone, blazing away with a 50 cal. machine gun on top of a burning vehicle against six tanks and infantry that "...for the first time in three days, my feet were warm." This book follows Audie from his first day, as a green soldier on the beaches of Sicily and follows him through combat in Italy, France, and Germany. When Audie landed in France, in August of '44 he had been awarded two Bronze Stars, from August to January '45 he would earn the Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit, three Purple Hearts, and the Medal of Honor. Germany made two errors in WWII, one was attacking Russia, the other was on the first day that Audie Murphy landed in France they killed his best friend, after they pretended to surrender. The last paragraph of this book is as powerful as anything that you will read in war fiction. This is a great book, I'm glad that the legend of Audie Murphy is available to new generations.

This book is a classic of infantry warfare. It should be noted that Murphy wrote less than 10 percent of the book himself. In fact, the bulk of the book was written buy a fellow veteran and Hollywood screenwriter (and full-time alcoholic) David "Spec" McClure. Their collaborative process in writing the book is interesting. McClure would use Murphy's medal citations and Donald Taggart's classic "History of the Third Infantry Division in World War II," for solid reference, then he would interview Murphy, that is, provided if he was so inclined to speak. If the session was fruitful, much was done. If it wasn't, it went slow. Murphy would then read over what was done and either he would approve it or send it back. Sometimes, McClure would get so annoyed when Audie would send a passage back he'd yell at Murphy, "Well what DID happen?" then Murphy would tell him. It took them a year, but they finally completed it. The result was a bestseller and a future movie adaptation.One thing about this book for a more contemporary reader: this book is packed with a lot of dialogue much of which borders on the hokey. Still, that doesn't lessen the impact of Murphy's story. Also he never mentions his medals. His tone at times screams of modesty. Sometimes, you don't even know he's there, he lets his friends and comrades-in-arms do most of the talking (in here, their names are fictionalized). The book's dedication to two of his buddies who were killed in action should come off as no surprise.I'm glad to see this classic being reprinted. Let's hope it never goes out of print.

I read this book for the first time as a Sophomore in high school and am compelled to rank it as one of the top five books I've ever picked up (Sakai's "Samurai!" and Galland's "The First and the Last" being the only others that I'd dare compare to it). Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier of World War II, was awarded every medal for valor his country could give (The Congressional Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, The Bronze Star Medal, The Bronze Star Medal with a Bronze Service Arrowhead, the Legion of Merit, two Silver Stars, the Purple Heart...the list goes on and on), yet he tells his story in such an unassuming manner that it is hard to believe it is written by a war hero. Audie seems more content to discuss his friends and their impact on the war and on his life than to talk about himself. In his eyes, they are the heroes, and his book does a fine job of paying homage to the footsoldier of World War II. His book is also a marvelously frank and vivid account of combat through the eyes an "everyman." A poor farm boy from Texas, Murphy is perhaps in many ways the typical hero: one who, when faced with a challenge, rises to a level beyond that which could reasonably be expected under different circumstances. Despite being rejected by the Marines and the Navy for military service ("You're too small, kid"), Audie refused to give up his quest to serve his country. Faced with the horror of war (and the deaths of close comrades), Murphy continuously and relentlessly rose to meet the challenges presented him when those of lesser mettle would surely have cowered. All the more remarkable is that Audie accomplished all this before the age of twenty! No review could ever do this book justice. It is wonderful, sincere, sad, and true. Rest assured, you will not be disappointed. HIGHLY recommended.

I grew up with this movie, but what the movie didn't tell you is why teenage Audie Murphy won the Congressional Medal of Honor. At the time of his battle, Murphy had been walking around for 24 hours, carrying artillery shrapnel wounds. He refused medical aid because he was the only officer remaining in a company of men which had less than 15 men remaining. He called artillery fire on top of his position to drive off a German assault which surely would have wiped out what remained of his men. He mounted a burning tank destroyer to drive off the German infantry still advancing towards his men. Murphy's book reminds us that wars are fought by ordinary people often closer to being children, as opposed to battle hardened warriors. It reminds us that courage is not limited to those over 20, and that the real Hell and the highest price of war is paid by the young.